


The S. Roosevelt High Banner

by purplechucks



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Basically what I think the plot of newsies would be like in a modern setting, High School AU, M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-27 23:25:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10818951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplechucks/pseuds/purplechucks
Summary: When the S. Roosevelt High school newspaper receives a seemingly unfair list of banned topics from their Principal, they cease printing and go on strike in protest.Davey Jacobs is the new kid, thrown into the midst of it when Jack Kelly makes them co-editors upon Davey's arrival, leading him to form a crush on his new friend that he kind of wishes would go away.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a sort-of modern version of the plot of newsies, however you will notice some characters and sub-plots missing. I really didn't want to leave some of the stuff out but it really didn't fit into the way the story was going. 
> 
> I've also never lived in America, let alone New York, so I apologise for any inaccuracies about school, locations, etc. I did my research but sometimes that doesn't cut it.

“Welcome to S. Roosevelt High School, David. I’m sure you’ll like it here. The group of kids working on the school paper are a lovely bunch, let me tell you. Perhaps a little ragtag and unorthodox at times, but lovely. Just this way now…”

Davey supposed there were worst things to start off his first day with. Working on newspapers was something he was good at. Something he knew how to do. However, when the classroom door opened and he saw all the seemingly loud and confident people working at computers and planning in groups his heart immediately went into overdrive. Of course his anxiety wouldn’t even let him have a break with something he actually enjoyed doing.

“Everyone, this is David Jacobs. David, this is everyone.”

Davey stood in the classroom doorway with Ms Hanna, the supervisor of his new school’s student-run newspaper. The introduction had caused the room to fall silent, with all eyes on him, and he couldn’t help but direct his own to the floor, hand automatically moving to push his glasses up his nose.

“And who is David?” One boy asked, causing snickers to flitter around the room.

Ms Hanna sighed. “Davey is a new senior at our school. He was one of the editors at his old school’s newspaper, and very good at it. I’m sure he’ll fit right in here.”

She said the last part like she was daring the group to try something, and Davey wondered what kind of school newspaper they were running at this place. The boy who looked to be the eldest and potentially the one in charged smiled and beckoned Davey over.

“I’m Jack, the paper’s editor,” he said, sticking out his hand to shake, which Davey accepted. “Nice to meet ya Davey. Welcome to the SR High Banner.”

“Thanks.”

“So what else have you done apart from editing, at your old place?” 

“Writing, mostly.”

“Well, writers is actually the one thing we’ve already got plenty of,” Jack paused. “I tell you what, we could probably do with one more editor. It’s not like Race does anything anyway.”

There was an uproar of laughter, and one boy in the back of the room shouted in protest. Davey was kind of surprised; as the new kid he honestly expected to be given some basic position that was meant for a freshman. Not the editor. Jack sent the room back to work, and let Davey towards one of the tables. There, three boys and a girl sat, including the boy named Race.

“Davey, this is Race, our other editor. Specs is our head writer, Sniper’s head photographer and Albert is in charge of all things graphics and layout wise. We publish weekly, issues go out on Wednesday afternoons. Juniors and Seniors meet every day like this, because we can take it as an elective. The entire crew meets on Tuesdays and Fridays after school.”

Davey spend the morning listening to them bounce ideas off each other and making various plans, only saying something when directly asked. This was nothing like his old school paper. They were restricted to stories about how their basketball team was going and what cool new thing a recent graduate was working on. Jack and his team had amazing ideas floating around. Stories about the minimum wage and how to be a good LGBT+ ally and budgeting as a student. Davey loved it.

“So, what do think?” Jack asked him as they packed up just before the bell went. “Do we live up to your standards, Davey Jacobs?”

“Go beyond, more like,” Davey replied. “Your ideas are better than anything we could have published at my old school. Everything you guys think of has importance behind it and that’s… well, important.”

Jack laughed. “Thanks. We know what it’s like, y’know? I mean, despite what those trendy magazines tell you, the lower east side and this school ain’t full of the rich and powerful. Most of us are any combination of working class, foster kids, queer, people of colour. Pretty much all of the above, in my case. We got voices that need to be heard.”

“I get that, I really do.”

“Good to know,” Jack smiled. “You’re a newsie now, Davey.”

“A newsie?” Davey’s eyebrows pulled together in conclusion. “Like…”

“Like those kids in the nineteenth century that would go around selling the papers, yep. That’s what we call ourselves.”

“Alright then.”

Jack quickly became the most familiar face to Davey during his first day at S. Roosevelt High. They also had English and Algebra together, and Jack quickly made sure Davey knew where all the newsies sat at lunch so he had a place to eat. They took up one of the biggest tables in the cafeteria, with almost the entire newspaper team from sophomores to seniors sitting on it. There were far too many names to remember all at once; it was partially overwhelming,

“Davey, this is my foster brother. His name’s Charlie but everyone calls him Crutchie.”

“New kid, right?” Crutchie smiled. “You new to the area?”

“Oh no, I’ve lived in this neighbourhood my whole life. Just moved schools, is all.”

Davey hoped no one would ask any further questions about his reasons for moving. It wasn’t something he was ready to talk about yet, especially to people who he’d just met.

“So any siblings move here with you?” a girl, Davey thought he heard someone call her Smalls, asked.

“No. I have a little brother in elementary school and my older sister’s in Boston for college.”

“Oh, doing what?”

“Engineering.”

Smalls looked delighted at this concept. “Tell her I hope she kicks every boy in her course’s butt.”

“Will do,” Davey smiled.

 

\------

 

Two days later, Jack caught up with him as he was heading out the school gates, calling his name and running over. Davey stopped and waited for him, smiling in amusement as Jack bent over to catch his breath, hands on knees. When he stood up straight again, he was grinning.

“Hey, so, I meant to say earlier today, you’re doing a good job as editor. The rest of the newsies love your ideas.”

“... And what do you think?” Davey asked, nervous.

“I love them too. You get the kind of stuff we’re trying to say.”

“Well it’s like you said. Kids in this area tend to have the kind of voices people want to squash.”

“Oh, that’s good. Write that down, we could use it.”

Davey looked over his shoulder as they started walking down the street. “Shouldn’t you be waiting for Crutchie?”

Jack shook his head, explaining that Crutchie took the bus to their foster home with Romeo, as the walk was too far for his bad leg. “Where do you live? We could walk home together.”

“Just right down the other end of that street there actually, about eight blocks,” Davey pointed across the road.

“What do you know, I go down nine blocks then turn left. Perfect.”

“I actually have to keep going up here to the Elementary school to get Les though.”

“That’s okay.”

They walked along in comfortable silence, Jack occasionally humming along to whatever music was playing through the earbud he had in, hand drumming against his thigh. They were almost at Les’ school when Jack broke the silence.

“So what’s your story?” he asked suddenly.

“Huh?”

“What brought you to good old S. Roosevelt High? You said you’ve lived here your whole life.”

“Why do you want to know?!” Davey asked, on the defensive.

“Sorry!” Jack put his hands up. “You don’t have to tell me anything, you’re right.”

“No, no, I’m sorry. It’s just… people usually change their opinion of me when the find out.”

“Well, the way I see it is we’re friends now, yeah?” Davey was kind of surprised Jack already considered him a friend, but he nodded so Jack would continue. “Right, so if or when you want to tell me, friends don’t judge friends for what’s happened in their past.”

Their arrival at the elementary school stopped the conversation from continuing. They didn’t have to wait for long until what could only be described as a blur barreled straight into Davey. Les was both small and fast for ten years old, meaning Davey frequently lost him in crowds. His little brother grinned up at him, then looked at Jack with suspicion.

“Who’s this?” he demanded.

“Jack, Les. Les, Jack. We go to school together,” Davey explained.

“Is he the guy from the newspaper club?” Les asked. “The one you were telling me about?”

“Awe, what are you saying about me Davey?” Jack grinned, teasing.

“Nothing important. And yes, Les, we work on the newspaper together too.”

Les spent the entire walk home borderline interrogating Jack, to the point where Davey learnt more about him in fifteen minutes than he had in the past three days. Thanks to Les, he now knew Jack had been in foster care since he was six, Crutchie had been his foster brother since they were thirteen and fifteen, and he liked to paint in his spare time. Which, if Davey thought about it, explained the paint splattered jeans Jack always seems to be wearing.  

The Jacobs’ lived in a building above a small bookshop, on the fifth floor. The building was drab and the apartment itself small, but the rooftop was nice and they never had any problems with neighbours, so Davey had always counted it as a win.

“Well I’ll see you tomorrow Dave. Oh, and any chance you could text me the solution to that algebra problem I couldn’t work out in class?”

“Sure. Or you could come up and we could do the homework together?” Davey suggested. “Unless you’ve got some place to be-”

“No, no, no,” Jack said. “That’d be great.”

“You know, you’re the first friend Davey’s had over from school in  _ ages, _ ” Les told Jack, only to have his mouth covered by Davey’s hand; his older brother embarrassed.

With their mother and father still at work, Davey made sure that Les had a snack and got started on what little homework a fifth grader received before he and Jack headed to his room. He watched Jack look around as he cleared his desk. His room wasn’t anything special; just big enough for a double bed, a decent desk and a wardrobe. The shelf above his desk held an assortment of things, certificates and photos and his favourite books.

“Hey, look at this,” Jack plucked one of the certificates from the shelf. “You said you got what it was like to be the kinda person who needed a voice, so to speak, and it turns out you used to go to that fancy school near NYU. So what is the truth?”

Logically, Davey knew that Jack was just teasing, that he wasn’t accusing Davey of anything. Yet he couldn’t help the automatic urge to defend himself.

“It’s not like that!”

“I know I-”

“I kinda got expelled.”

The confession was quiet, Davey blurted it out like he couldn’t stop himself. He expected Jack to suddenly back peddle, and pull that odd facial expression that usually meant most people had changed their outlook Davey. Jack’s expression was more neutral, and he spoke calmly.

“You, expelled? I don’t believe it”

“What?”

Jack sat on Davey’s bed. “Okay, so I’ve only known you like three days, but you don’t seem like the kind of guy who’d managed to get himself expelled. Unless the Davey I met is some wildly reformed version of you.”

“I really didn’t fit in at my old school,” Davey explained, sitting down next to Jack. He gestured to the small rainbow flag pin attached to the top of his backpack. “I mean, I’m gay and ace and Jewish and I live east of Lloyd street. The teasing was never that bad, until one day these boys decided they wanted to pick a fight, and I fought back for once.”

“They expelled you even though they started it?” Jack asked, outraged.

“Not really. They actually got expelled for it, but I may or may not have broken one guy’s nose.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. Not the David Jacobs you know, right? Anyway, they said I used ‘unnecessary and excessive force’ so they took away my partial scholarship as punishment. Which I guess is pretty much expulsion, considering I know they knew my family couldn’t afford the full fees.”

“So you had to move?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Nah, don’t be. I like our school better already. C’mon, we should probably do some work.”

The boys finished their algebra homework just as Esther Jacobs arrived home from work. Upon seeing they had a guest, she immediately insisted Jack stay for dinner despite the boy’s protests. They ate when Davey’s father arrived, both parents pleased to see their eldest son had made a friend at his new school. After eating, Jack and Davey sat out on the fire escape accessible from Davey’s bedroom window and watched the street below.

“Your parents are really nice,” Jack said. “Good people, I can tell.”

“Yeah? Well, they definitely like you, I can tell that.”

Jack looked up at the sky. “I wish I could tell you something about my mom and dad, but truth is I don’t really remember them.”

“Well tell me about who you live with now. Your foster mom, right?”

“Medda’s great,” Jack grinned. “I’ve been in my fair share of foster homes. Met all those people doing it for the money and what not. Medda’s nothing like that. She used to act and sing, but now she’s one of the managers at the Irving Plaza. When I turned fifteen she turned her study into a mini painting studio for me.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah. Speaking of Medda, what’s the time, she’s going to kill me if I’m home late.”

“It’s nearly seven thirty.”

“Shit! I gotta go.”

Jack gathered his things, and then surprised Davey by pulling him into a quick hug, squeezing tight for a brief moment. He looked down the fire escape, curious.

“Can I get down here?”

“You can. Or you can use the front door like a normal person.”

“Ah, but there’s no fun in being normal,” Jack said, eyes practically sparkling in the evening sun.  

Davey laughed, rolling his eyes. “Okay then,  _ goodbye _ Jack.”

“You’re right, I am a good bi.”

“You’re a what… oh my god, I  _ hate _ you.”

“See you tomorrow,” Jack grinned, practically cackling as he disappeared down the stairs and into the street below.  Davey watched him go until he turned and went down his own street, then climbed back through his window and into his bedroom. 


	2. Chapter Two

_ “So have you made any friends?” _

“Well, I’m on the school newspaper team, and there’s this one boy-”

Davey was cut off by the shriek of his sister coming through the laptop. He turned down the volume and waited for her to finish. Ever since he came out, she pretty much made a big deal out of any time he mentioned a boy. He could never tell whether she was just teasing or was genuinely excited. 

_ “Sorry, I’m done.” _

“Funnily enough, he is bi, but that’s not the point. His name is Jack, we’re co-editors with one other guy on the paper. He’s nice, he never seems to mind when I go on those tangents of mine.”

“ _ Well then, he’s a keeper, isn’t he?” _

Davey rolled his eyes and changed the subject. “How’s Boston been treating you this week?”

Sarah Jacobs was a year older than Davey, and as well as being his sister was probably one of his best friends. They skyped every Sunday afternoon without fail, doing their own homework whilst talking for hours. She was studying engineering on a Woman’s STEM scholarship, and Davey was immensely proud of her. He also missed her dearly; perhaps the only good part of her being gone was that he got her bedroom when she moved out, after sharing with Les for almost ten years. 

They talked school and Davey gave her updates on each family member as well as interesting things that had happened in their building. Sarah helped him with his Biology homework and he proofread an essay for her. 

_ “Hey, I’m sorry, I’ve got to go. Gotta make sure my group doesn’t fail this research project,”  _ Sarah said not long after their call hit the hour and a half mark. 

“All good. Take care of yourself.”

“ _ You too. Give my love to everyone, tell Ma I’ll call her on Tuesday _ .”

“Okay. Love you”

“ _ Love you too _ .”

The call ended, and Davey yawned and stretched in his desk chair, pushing his glasses to sit on top of his head. He’d been working on his homework since lunchtime, only realising midway through his call with Sarah that he was yet to take a break. He got up to grab a snack and some water, and what he saw when he entered his room again nearly caused him to drop everything out of pure shock. 

Jack was climbing up onto the fire escape landing, and he gave Davey a cheery wave when he saw him. Davey placed his food on the desk and opened his window, letting Jack in. 

“Jack Kelly, what the  _ hell  _ are you doing?”

“Have you checked your school email?” Jack asked, pulling himself through the window. 

“Not since yesterday. Have you ever heard of using the front door, or even sending a text message?” 

“Had a feeling we’d need to talk face to face after you saw the email. And I like the fire escape okay?”

“Yeah, but my mom’s going to start wondering why you feel the need to sneak in and out of the house if you keep suddenly appearing in my bedroom all the time.”

Jack waggled his eyebrows. Davey gave him an exasperated look and logged into the school email system on his laptop. The only email he had was one from Ms Hanna, the school newspaper supervisor. It was addressed to Davey, Jack and Race. 

 

_ To: Jack K. Anthony H. David J.  _

_ From: M. Hanna.  _

 

_ Hello Boys,  _

_ I took your stories to Principal Pulitzer as usual for approval. He’s decided your concepts for your 3 main stories for the week are ‘too inappropriate’ and ‘things high school students don’t have any business writing about’. I tried to argue that this has always been the direction you boys have been taking the Banner in since you started, but he wasn’t having it.  _

_ He’s given me a list of banned topics, which I’ll give out on Monday. He says not to worry about printing an issue this week so you have time to write new stuff and have it approved.  _

_ Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,  _

_ Ms. Hanna.  _

 

“Well that’s…”

“Bullshit?”

“Pretty much.”

Jack ran a hand through his hair, collapsing onto Davey’s bed. “Is this allowed? Isn’t this censorship?”

“I don’t think so,” Davey said, sitting in his desk chair. “We’re a high school newspaper. Pretty sure they’re allowed to control what we publish. He ever protested what you’ve talked about before?”

Jack shook his head. “This is kind of new stuff for us too. We’ve always been about the important stories, but the important stories used to be ‘what employers are looking for in high schoolers’ and ‘why your vote counts in the election’. Now it’s ‘why you should go to protests and marches’ and ‘how to stand against everyday racism and sexism’.”

“So what are we going to do?” Davey asked. He got up, shoved a little at Jack’s side until his friend moved over and then collapsed on the bed next to him. 

“I kinda came over to ask you the same thing. What do we tell the newsies?”

Davey turned his head to look at Jack, only to realise how close their faces were. Just as Jack was about to turn his own head towards him, Davey immediately looked back to the ceiling, hoping none of the heat flooding to his cheeks was visible. They were both silent, mulling over what they could do. 

“We can’t make this decision ourselves,” Davey said. “You need to talk to everyone tomorrow, make some options, then we can all decided when we’ve got the full team on Tuesday.”

Jack smiled. “See? I knew it was worth putting some actual brains in charge.”

There was a knock at the door, then Esther Jacobs’ voice floated through. “David, do I hear another voice in there?”

“It’s just Jack, Ma,” Davey called back. 

“Jack, are you staying for dinner?”

“No thanks Mrs Jacobs, I’ll be expected home soon,” Jack replied. 

“Alright. And you are welcome to use our front door dear.”

Footsteps became faint as Esther walked away from the door, and then Jack and Davey burst into a fit of giggles. Davey had never really had a friend like this before; the kind that walked home with him from school and didn’t mind that they detoured to pick up Les, the kind that showed up at his house unannounced, the kind that was already sending him ‘hey where are you’ texts if he was so much as five minutes late to lunch. 

It was nice. 

 

\-----

 

When Davey, Jack, and Race announced the problem to the newsies, a commotion erupted in the classroom. Some members immediately complained about how unfair it seemed. Others turned to Ms Hanna as though she could stop it from happening, but the poor woman could only shrug. 

“I’m sorry kids, but this is out of my hands,” she said. “Mr Pulitzer was very firm in this decision.”

“Did he at least say why?” Mush asked. 

“I do not remember the exact words, but it was along the lines of your stories having the potential to start revolt and violence amongst students, as well as forcing beliefs on people.”

The commotion started again. The newsies had weeks and weeks of stories planned, and with the kind of topics being banned it looked like more than half of them would have to go. 

“Forcing beliefs? So wanting people to be accepting and not exhibit blatant discrimination is just a belief now?” Specs exclaimed. 

“Hey guys. Guys!” Silence fell quickly as they all looked to Jack. “Listen, we can’t just sit around and complain, we need to decide what to do now.”

“What do you mean? We’ve got an extra week, we’ve just gotta come up with some new stuff,” Henry said. 

This comment started more arguing, and Jack just sighed. “I don’t really like the idea of doing whatever Pulitzer tells us to do. What’s the point of printing the banner if it’s not really what we want?”

“So what are we going to do?” Davey spoke up. “Not print?”

The grin that formed on Jack, and a few of the other newsies, made Davey regret his words immediately. It was like he could see the cogs turning in Jack’s head. 

“That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

“Can’t we get in trouble for that? What about people’s grades? This is a class.”

Jack shrugged. “A detention won’t hurt anyone. Besides, it won’t be indefinitely.”

“Jack,” Davey stepped closer to his friend, lowering his voice. “You  _ know  _ I can’t afford to get in trouble again after what happened at my last school.”

Jack stepped closer to Davey, so they were almost nose to nose. “I bet if you had a group of people willing to stand with you, you would have never had to leave your old school in the first place.”

Race cleared his throat to interrupt them, and Davey was grateful for an excuse to look away. Not only was Jack probably right, but being so close to him made Davey’s heart beat faster in a way that he didn’t think was his normal anxiety. 

“If you two are done with your little quarrel that the rest of us don’t understand, Finch has something to say.”

Finch actually had a hand raised, which they lowered when Jack nodded. “We don’t actually get graded on producing the paper. We get marked on those reflective essays we write on print production and our general group cooperation, right Ms Hanna?”

“That’s right.”

“So here’s what we do,” Jack decided. “We show up to class, we run our meetings after school, but no newspaper gets printed until Pulitzer at least compromises on his demands.”

“What, like a strike?” Davey said. 

“Exactly!”

“Jack, if we’re going to do something so… drastic, everyone needs to agree. This has to wait until tomorrow.”

“You’re right, so what can we do now? Ms Hanna?”

Ms Hanna raised her hands in defeat. “I am taking no part in whatever crazy scheme you kids are going to come up with. That being said, I would recommend you write some sort of letter to Mr Pulitzer about why you’re considering to cease printing, and what you’d like changed about his demands”.  

And that was how they spent the rest of the class. Davey surprised himself but almost taking charge of the letter. He had a way with words, and he was able to turn the team’s ideas into paragraphs of professionalism as to why the restrictions on the S. Roosevelt Banner were extreme and unjust. When the bell rang to signal the end of class, an electric atmosphere consumed the room. They all felt the thrill of doing something in the name of freedom. 

The next day the letter was finished, and they were ready to present a proper case to the remaining newsies about why they should cease printing. After school they gathered, the room with its eyes on Jack, standing at the front armed with nothing but his charm and a few key points Davey had written out for him. 

“Listen guys, I know this seems like we’re blowing it way out of proportion, but this isn’t just about having topics banned. It’s about the fact we’re just getting told what to do, no warning no compromise no nothing,” Jack said. “We’re writing about the world we’re living in. It’s reality for kids like us, and if Pulitzer can’t see that then, quite frankly, he needs a wake up call.”

A murmur of agreements fluttered around the room. 

“The stuff we write about is important. I mean, kids at this school actually  _ read  _ our paper. How many times to we get complimented on our work? Or get told by some kid that an article we wrote helped them talk to their friends about a problem their gender or race or sexuality faces? This all ends if we just start printing the same old stuff every school paper prints. But to stop printing, we all need to agree. This won’t affect your grades, and technically the club is still running.”

“And hey, if it works out this will be a great thing to put in college essays,” Sniper piped up. “Striking in the name of what’s right and fair.”

“Exactly!” Jack agreed. “So it’s up to you, do we go along with the ban or do we strike?”

“Strike!” a few people called out, followed up my nods and general noises of agreement from the rest of the newsies. 

Jack looked to Davey and grinned, and all Davey could do was smile back. 

“There you have it folks, the newsies of S. Roosevelt High are officially on strike!”


	3. Chapter Three

By the time the newsies made a few more plans and delivered their letter to Mr Pulitzer, it was well into the evening when Jack and Davey started to walk home. The sun low in the sky, they walked along idly, bumping shoulders and scuffing their shoes across the pavement, no desire to hurry home. The buzz of what they were doing still hung in the air around them. They’d catch each other’s eye and smile, the same thought shared between them. They were actually going on a strike. 

“Hey, thanks for writing that stuff for me to say today,” Jack said. 

“It was nothing,” Davey dismissed him. “You spoke really well. Had everyone’s full attention.”

“I wouldn’t have if I didn’t have your ideas. You’re the one who knows what to say and how to say it. You should speak up more.”

“I can’t, I really can’t,” Davey confessed. “I see all those eyes looking at me, and I just freak out. My knees shake and I start stuttering. Once I almost passed out. It’s awful, really. I think I’ll just stick to being your speechwriter.”

“I’ll get you up there one day Davey Jacobs.”

They walked in silence for another block, and then Jack spoke up again. 

“Hey, so, um… Medda’s kind of been asking me to bring you around for dinner, she’d really like to meet you. And, y’know, repay you for having me over last week.”

“No repayment needed. Why does she wanna meet me so bad?”

“Oh, clearly Crutchie talks about you all the time. Kid’s infatuated with you.”

Jack was clearly lying, and smiling like he knew he was making it obvious. This just led to Davey feeling heat creep up in his cheeks. Jack gave him this look sometimes, that made him feel important, and it was messing with Davey’s head  _ and _ heart. That being said, he still called his mother to say he’d be at Jack’s for dinner. 

“I’m home!” Jack called as he unlocked the door to the apartment. Crutchie and Medda were in the kitchen, Medda cooking and Crutchie watching from the breakfast bar. When Medda saw them both walk in, she smiled warmly. 

“You must be Davey, welcome, welcome,” she said. “Tell me, what are your opinions on tomatoes and pasta?”

“Um… I’ll eat both?”

“Good answer.”

Davey smiled politely and turned to Jack. “You said you had a painting room. Can I see?”

“Sure, just let me make sure I’ve got nothing out that I don’t want people to see yet.”

“You mean eighty percent of the work you do in that room?” Medda asked. “Took three months before this boy showed me a single thing he’d drawn or painted, consider yourself lucky Davey.”

“Me too!” Crutchie added. “What’s so special about Davey?”

“Shut up, he asked.” Now it was Jack’s turn to blush, Davey pretended he didn’t notice. 

Jack genuinely made Davey wait outside the door to his little studio for a good five minutes, hurrying to not only declutter his space but hide anything he considered too personal for anyone to view. He then opened the door again and let Davey through. 

The studio wasn’t a big space; Davey thought it was roughly the size of the kitchen in his apartment. A desk ran along one wall, two worn easels were set up with a tarp against another and a large cork board took up most of the third wall. A half finished painting of a skyline sat on one of the easels, and the cork board had sketches pinned all over it; tiny ones on scraps of paper all the way to completely detailed ones from sketchbooks. 

“Wow,” Davey breathed. “You’re really good!”

“I… uh, thanks,” Jack had suddenly gone shy.

“Seriously. Do you ever draw for the Banner?”

“Nah.”

“You should.”

“Nah.”

“I’ll start speaking up more often if you draw occasionally…” Davey countered. 

“Thought you got too anxious” Jack replied. 

Davey shrugged. “We’ll see.”

Their borderline flirting was interrupted by Medda calling them to dinner. Davey was grateful for the conversation throughout the meal, keeping his mind occupied so he didn’t have much time to think about Jack. Where he stood with Jack. How he’d some how managed to fall for this boy in a matter of a week. 

And there it was. Davey had finally admitted it to himself. He definitely had a crush on Jack. 

As soon as he allowed himself to think it, Davey suddenly felt the urge to flee. He remained as calm as possible, waiting until dinner was finished and casually mentioning that he should be getting home. 

“Let me walk you out,” Jack said. 

Davey thanked Medda and said goodbye to Crutchie, and let Jack lead him out. 

“Is it just me, or do we need to do something more than  _ just  _ strike,” Jack said all of a sudden as they walked down the stairwell. “Like, what if Mr Pulitzer doesn’t actually give a shit about what we do with the paper?”

“So… put pressure on him, you mean? Force him to compromise?” Davey suggested. 

“Yeah.”

“Well, realistically, we just need to get word out. Get the newsies to tell their friends why the Banner isn’t printing. If we get enough people caring, enough people upset with the rules, then we create change.”

“That’s it! I know just the person who can help us too. You’re a genius, have I mentioned?”

“You really need to stop with overdoing the compliments.”

“No, I’m serious. You just… think of these things so easily. I could kiss you right now, I swear.”

Davey stopped. Jack stopped. They were out on the front steps of Jack’s building, the only light coming from the street lamp above them and the faint glow of windows with lights coming through them. Jack looked like he wanted to backtrack. Davey looked like he wanted to run. After an awkward pause that seemed to last infinitely, Davey spoke. 

“I, uh, really need to go.”

“No, wait,” Jack grabbed Davey’s arm and pulled him back. When they were face to face again Jack leaned in and kissed him. It was brief, sweet, and left Davey lost for words. “Should I have not done that?”

“No, no, that was… unexpected. Just didn’t realise we were uh, on the same page.”

“Oh yeah?” Jack’s face was still so close to Davey’s. “And what page is that?”

Davey pulled out of Jack’s grip, slowing starting to walk away. “That I may or may not like you,” he said, a burst of bravery suddenly filling him. 

“Yeah? Well I may or may not like you too, and I may or may not think we should go out some time when we get the Banner running again.”

Davey bit down on his lip, attempting to prevent a smile. “See you tomorrow then.”

When he knew he was out of Jack’s line of sight, Davey pulled out his phone and immediately pressed his text conversation with his sister. 

 

Sarah

 

_ Jack and I kissed?!?! help?!?! _

_!!!!!!!!!!!! fuckin called it didn’t i?!?!  _

_ that is not help _

  
  


\-------

 

The person who Jack thought could help with the strike came in the form of a girl who suddenly appeared opposite them on their lunch table the next day. She wore a pastel skirt and a grey knit, with her hair in loose curls, looking more put together than the majority of high school students combined. 

“Davey, this is Katherine, she’s head of the yearbook.” 

Katherine stuck out her hand for Davey to shake, which he accepted. “So, words been going around that you’re not printing the Banner.”

“Pulitzer started banning our story ideas. All the ones that just happen to be about racism or feminism or anything important. All in the name of ‘not pushing beliefs’ and ‘preventing riot or violence’.”

“More like preventing individual student thought and forcing us into compliance,” Davey grumbled, looking down to the point he had to stop his glasses from slipping off his nose. “School shouldn’t be teaching you to sit down, shut up and let people walk all over you. The Banner wasn’t forcing anyone to think anything, it was spreading information and encouraging people to stand up for what  _ they  _ believe in.”

“Wow Jack,” Katherine said, taking a bite of her sandwich. “Where’d you find this one?”

“He found us. Anyway, we need your help Kat. You seem to know everyone in this school, think you can help the word get around about why we’ve stopping printing?”

“That, I can do. But I also have another idea.”

“What’s that?”

“Why just stop at not printing your newspaper, let’s stop all student publications,” Katherine explained. 

“What do you mean?” Davey asked. 

“Well, I could stop yearbook club. That means no photos, no meetings, no work on the yearbook for as long as you’re on strike. The radio club could stop their broadcasts.”

“In theory, that’s a good idea,” Jack said. “But getting the radio club to stop means talking to Spot Conlon.”

“Who’s Spot Conlon?” Davey asked. 

“Radio club leader,” Katherine answered, the same time as Jack replied “an asshole.”

“They get a ninety minute segment on a local station on fridays. It’s quite good, a lot of people who aren’t associated with the school listen to it,” Katherine explained. “Having him on our side would be a good thing, but he doesn’t like Jack all that much.”

“Yeah well maybe I’ll bring Davey with me, to soften him up.”

“What?”

They had to wait until after school to find Spot, as the afternoon meetings of the radio club were the only guaranteed place to find him on any given day; it seemed to be the only thing he had any sort of commitment to. Every head turned their way when they entered the classroom, and Davey instinctively wanted to turn around and leave. Jack must have sensed his apprehension, as he subtly put his hand on the small of Davey’s back and pushed him further into the room. 

“Hey, Jackie boy.”

“Hi Spot. How’s things?”

“You know Jackie, I’ve been hearing things about your paper.”

Jack sighed. “Well, funnily enough, that’s what we’re hear to talk to you about.”

When the two of them explained their idea, or rather Katherine’s idea, Spot genuinely started laughing. A few of the other club members joined in. Davey looked to Jack, who only shrugged. 

“What’s so funny about the fact the principal pretty much shut down majority of what we write in the Banner because he doesn’t like the views we’re presenting? It started with us, what happens when you get shut down next?” Davey was starting to get angry at Spot’s nonchalance of the situation. 

Spot got out of his chair and walked right up to Davey. “You threatening me, whoever you are?”

“His name is Davey,” Jack put an arm between the two. “And we’re not threatening you Spot, but Pulitzer might be soon. Talking about protests and marches was one of our banned topics, isn’t that a frequent part of your show?” 

Spot seemed to take this into consideration, and he walked back to his crew. They whispered together for a bit, and it was hard to tell who was for and against the idea. When Spot addressed them again, he said he’d think about it. There wasn’t much more Jack and Davey could ask for. 

They left the classroom, and Jack threw an arm around Davey’s shoulders; he seemed to consider the conversation a success. It had been half an hour since the final school bell rang, yet there were still people milling around the corridors; chatting with friends or walking to clubs together. They turned down the hallway both their lockers belonged to, and upon finding it was empty Jack pulled them both to a halt and leaned in to kiss Davey. 

He wasn’t actually sure whether to call their second kiss better or worse than the first. Mostly better, because it was longer and Davey actually managed to kiss him back this time. Slightly worse, because he had his glasses on and they were pressing into his face at an awkward and painful angle. 

“Not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?” he asked when they pulled back. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t talk in front of crowds. You talk like that and it just makes me want to kiss you.”

Davey ducked his head. “You’re just sweet talking.”

“Nup. I mean it. Spot Conlon’s not exactly a bully, but he’s not exactly the kind of guy people speak against either. And you just did.”

“I don’t like bullies, no matter how not-exactly-a-bully they are.”

“How very Captain America of you.”

“If either of us is Captain America, it’s more likely you,” Davey was opening his locker, and couldn’t see Jack’s reaction to his offhand comment. 

“Now who’s sweet talking,” Jack muttered, going to his own locker. Davey was pleased to notice the tinge of red blooming on Jack’s ears. Two could play at this little game of theirs. 

He could only hope it would become more than a game and kisses when no one was around. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see I literally have no self control because I made Jack & Davey kiss so early in the story. Though, it's not exactly smooth sailing from this point onwards.


	4. Chapter Four

Davey woke up on Friday morning with a sense of foreboding that, as a teenager with anxiety, actually occurred quite frequently for him. However, he actually hadn’t felt it since starting at his new school, so he was kind of surprised with the clench in his chest and the slight tremor in his hands. He elected to ignore it; he got up and got dressed, ate breakfast with his father and Les and left the apartment. 

Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the day wasn’t going to go right. 

Jack had started waiting for him outside his building, since it was the way he walked to school anyway. Davey found him sitting on the bottom step, earbuds in and oblivious to Davey coming up behind him. He kicked Jack’s side lightly, so it was barely a nudge, smiling at Jack’s immediate jump of surprise. Jack shot him a glare with little heat behind it, shoving his earphones into his jeans pocket. 

“Ready to go?” Davey asked. 

“Sure”

They only made it two blocks when Davey saw that his day, in fact, was not going to go right. Walking towards them were three boys in school uniforms; neatly pressed slacks and white shirts with a school crest. There was no way they weren’t going to notice Davey and Jack, an interaction Davey really didn’t want to occur. 

“Fuck,” he let out under his breath, already calculating how to get out of this as quickly as possible. 

“Since when do you-” Jack began. 

“David Jacobs!” A new voice called. “Long time no see pal. How’s slumming it in public school?”

The three newcomers stopped and made it impossible to pass them on the sidewalk. Davey sighed. “Andrew. Funnily enough, it’s fine.”

“So how come you moved again?”

“Ah didn’t you hear Andrew, kid fucking broke Kyle Lore’s nose and they both got fucking expelled,” another boy chimed in, sardonic grin on his face. “They always talk about the gay kids getting beat up, maybe they should start worrying about the gay kids doing the beating up.”

“Woah, wanna watch your mouth there?” Jack said, moving to step slightly in front of Davey. 

The boy named Andrew immediately moved forward and grabbed Jack, pinning his arms to his side so he couldn’t fight back. “This is cute. Jacobs actually has a friend. You see, Kyle Lore was  _ our _ friend, and now he’s at school on the other side of the city. And that’s Jacobs’ fault.”

Jack struggled, but one of the other boys moved in to help restrain him whilst the third stepped towards Davey. His fist was raised to throw a punch, when a voice from above called down to them. 

“What is going on down there?” a woman from the apartment building the were outside of called down. “Are those Jefferson Academy uniforms I see? Don’t make me call your school boys!”

She closed the window, but the boys seemed to have had enough fear put into them. The two boys let go of Jack, and the third pushed Davey into the ground, and then ran off. 

Davey didn’t have enough time to prepare for the fall; he slammed into the ground, lucky enough not to hit his head too badly and grateful he never put his glasses on until he got to school. He did however feel the sharp sting of his skin scraping against concrete, and by the time Jack helped him up he was most definitely bleeding. His forearm had a line of cuts and grazes, and when he touched his temple blood came away too. Jack pushed away Davey’s hair, trying to get a better look. 

“Shit Davey,” he murmured. “Should we go back to your place and get you cleaned up?”

“No, no,” Davey pushed away his friend’s arm. “C’mon, we’ll be late.”

“You’re bleeding…”

“I can clean up in the bathrooms at school. Please Jack, can we just forget about it?”

“Is that what your old school was like for you? What were rich kids like them even doing around here?”

Davey ignored the first question. “They live in the south of this neighbourhood. They were heading towards the subway station.”

“It doesn’t hurt too badly, does it?”

“Stings a little,” Davey shrugged. “I’m fine. I’ve had worse paper cuts from books.”

“From books. Of course you have. Have I mentioned that you’re a nerd sometimes?”

“Correction, I’m a nerd all the time.”

When they walked through the school gates they were smiling again, and that was all Davey could have asked for. They parted ways and Davey washed away the drying blood in the bathroom. He ignored the odd glances he got in homeroom, telling his teacher he’d ‘just fallen over’ when she asked. He was relieved when the bell for period one signalled, and he eagerly headed towards the newsies’ classroom. 

When he got there, all the newsies were waiting outside the classroom. The newsies weren’t the  type to wait for a teacher before going in so he immediately knew something was wrong. Jack was closest to the door, reading a piece of paper that was stuck onto it. It looked like the bad day Davey had predicted when he woke up wasn’t over yet. 

“What the hell happened to your face Dave?” Finch asked. “And your arm?”

Davey waved a hand in dismissal. “What’s going on?”

“Just Pulitzer deciding he ain’t going to listen to us at all,” Race said, gesturing to the sign on the door. 

 

_ ATTENTION MEMBERS OF THE S. ROOSEVELT HIGH BANNER NEWSPAPER CLUB _

 

_ DUE TO THE CEASE OF PRINTING, THE DECISION HAS BEEN MADE TO NO LONGER RUN THE NEWSPAPER CLUB. ACCESS TO THIS CLASSROOM AND IT’S RESOURCES DURING FIRST PERIOD AND AFTER SCHOOL IS NO LONGER NECESSARY.  _

 

_ ALL SENIORS AND JUNIORS ARE REQUIRED TO MEET WITH THE GUIDANCE COUNSELORS EARLY NEXT WEEK TO FIND AN APPROPRIATE CLASS TO REPLACE THIS ONE. THERE ARE PLENTY OF PLACES IN THE RADIO CLUB.  _

 

_ ALL SOPHOMORE MEMBERS ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO FIND ANOTHER CLUB TO JOIN TO CONTINUE THEIR EXTRA CURRICULAR PURSUITS. SUGGESTIONS INCLUDE YEARBOOK, PHOTOGRAPHY OR COMPUTER CLUB.  _

 

_ ALL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO GUIDANCE COUNSELORS UPON APPOINTMENT.  _

 

_ REGARDS, _

_ ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION. _

 

“What are we going to do?”

“I didn’t think it’d go this far”

“The fucker should just y’know, meet with us”

“Just because we’re the students means we don’t get a say?”

“That brilliant brain of yours got any ideas right now?” Jack asked Davey. 

“I’m not sure,” Davey replied. “But if Katherine and Spot enforce their clubs’ strikes as well, we still might have a chance.”

 

\-----

 

Luckily for them, Spot liked the idea of cancelling his radio shows more than the idea of newsies having to join his club because there was no newspaper club. The yearbook club wasn’t running as an elective, so Katherine had the power to cancel all meetings for the near future. This meant that with classes already scheduled and full, there wasn’t really anywhere for the newsies to go. As Jack explained to the newsies at over lunch, this would hopefully force Pulitzer’s hand. 

“I emailed Ms Hanna, she’s going to try and get us a meeting with Principal Pulitzer,” Davey said. “At this point, we just need a compromise.”

“What kind of compromise?” Crutchie asked. 

“One that works in our favour. Like, we agree not to publish stories directly to do with protests or political affiliations, but we get to talk about human rights in any other way.”

“Still feels like he wins then,” Mush grumbled. 

“Hey, Davey’s just trying to make sure none of our dumb asses get suspended or expelled. And that we can graduate,” Sniper said. “At this point we should take any compromise we can get.”

“How ironic that he stopped our stories so they students wouldn’t learn how to rebel or protest, and yet that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Romeo said around a mouthful of his lunch. 

Henry looked disgusted. “Dude. I only understood a good quarter of what you said then. Chew your food.”

There was nothing more they could do for the moment. The ball was in the court of the adults. Lunch conversation switched to baseball and math homework and why the M15 bus never ran on time. Davey noticed Crutchie watching him and Jack carefully, but he turned away the moment they made eye contact. Davey wondered if Crutchie knew about him and Jack, or even just suspected. 

“Hey, how’s your head?” Jack asked as he and Davey walked to English after lunch. He made to reach out and examine the damage himself, but Davey batted his hand away. 

“It’s fine,” Davey said, moving his hair into place so no one could see the dried blood at his hairline. “My arm stings more than anything, pretty sure there’s bits of concrete lodged in there.”

“Shouldn’t you go to the nurse?”

“Jack. Seriously. It’s nothing some warm water and something from my Ma’s first aid kit won’t fix.”

“Okay, okay,” Jack seemed to realise he was borderline overreacting to the situation. “I just feel bad. I could have stopped them.”

Davey sighed. “No, you couldn’t have. You were pinned by two guys who had at least six inches and years of basketball training on you. Neither of us could have known what they were going to do. I’m fine, you’re fine, and hopefully we never see them again. It’s okay.”

Jack reached out and gave Davey’s hand a brief squeeze, accompanied by a grateful smile. They walked into their classroom and sat at their desks situated next to each other. Not long after they sat down, a girl approached them both, looking nervous. Jack and Davey exchanged confused looks before Jack acknowledged her. 

“Hey Darcy. Everything okay?”

“Hi Jack. David. Katherine said I should probably speak to you.”

“Oh. Why’s that?”

Darcy explained. She had friends attending the Catholic girl’s school on the other side of union square and they happened to be facing a similar problem to the S. Roosevelt Banner. Banned topics in both class discussions and student print. Teachers refusing to listen. The girls there had heard about the problems the Banner was facing, and were seeking advice. 

“They’re not the only ones,” Darcy said. “That junior high school in the east village had a similar problem last year. I think they resolved it, but you’ll have to find out how, I don’t know myself.”

“Thank you Darcy, that’s really useful information,” Davey said. 

Darcy smiled. “The Banner gave me the support I needed to come out to my parents when I couldn’t find it elsewhere. It’s really important and I don’t want to see it go.”

The teacher arrived in the classroom and Darcy quickly darted back to her own desk. Jack tore a piece of paper on his notebook and wrote on in, before subtly sliding it towards Davey for him to read. When their teacher turned away from them Davey looked down to read it. 

_ What are you thinking? _

Davey wrote down the ideas that were brewing in his head. 

_ Team meeting. Looks like this isn’t just a S. Roosevelt High problem. If this is affecting kids across the city then we’ve got the chance to make a proper statement. We need to do something bigger.  _

_ And to think earlier this week you were worried about getting in trouble again.  _

_ Shut up.  _

_ Technically I’m not talking _

_ Jack! _

Davey underlined his friend’s name multiple times. 

_ Sorry! I’ll put the time and place in the groupchat. We’ll meet tomorrow. _

“Jack and David, please tell me you’re paying attention to the class,” their teacher interrupted. 

“Yes Miss, sorry!”


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This new chapter is slightly early, as I won't be able to post it in the morning like I usually do, so enjoy!

The newsies gathered at the park behind their school the next morning, sitting amongst the old playground due to be demolished now that a new one had been built at the other end of the park. Davey sat on one of the swings, Jack sitting at his feet and Crutchie on the other swing. The swings faced a climbing frame and slide, which majority of the other newsies had perched themselves on in some way. Smalls was even hanging upside down, making Davey kind of nervous. 

The final people to arrive were Race and Albert, armed with bags from the grocery store Albert worked at. They handed out their supplies of junk food and sugary drinks; anything and everything Albert could grab for free or massively discounted. 

“Alright, this newsies meeting is now in session,” Jack announced, silencing the multiple conversations occurring. “The basics are this; we’re not the only school in this city with problems like this. I need everyone to talk with everyone they know outside of school this weekend, try and see how many times this has happened.”

“And then what?” Romeo asked from his perch on top of the slide. 

“We join forces. Make a statement. Take the issue outside the school. I don’t know, let’s see if we get people willing to help us first.”

“I’ve got a bunch of friends in midtown that I can ask,” Mush said. 

“My step brother goes to school on the upper east side, I can see what he knows.”

“I can ask around at the gymnastics club.”

The group kept volunteering different groups of people they could talk to, and between them Davey thought they had the potential to cover most of Manhattan. Potentially. He took the bag of cookies that was being offered to him, took one, and passed it down to Jack. 

“Hey Jack?” Buttons asked suddenly. “Are you sure we’re not going… I dunno… like, overboard or something? It’s just a school newspaper.”

“It’s not overbo-”

“It’s not just about the paper anymore! It never was!”

Davey hadn’t meant to make an outburst like that, and he regretted it the moment all eyes turned towards him, who’d been silent behind Jack the whole time. They all looked at him, expecting him to continue. For once in his life, even though his hand started to shake at the mere thought, he clenched them tight and continued. 

“It’s about information. They’re denying kids like us the right to information; information about our rights! Most of the time, we’re not even presenting an opinion… the- they’re  _ facts.  _ I mean let’s face it, kids like us on this side of the neighbourhood, the system works against us. They see us trying to fix it and they shut it down so we’ve got no choice but to leave school ready to be exploited,” Davey was pretty sure that at the rate his heart was beating he was about to have a heart attack. “And that is not right!”

There was silence when he finished speaking, everyone looking at him completely stunned. Apart from Jack, who was grinning up at him with so much pride is almost made Davey uncomfortable. It was eventually Smalls who broke the silence, still hanging from the climbing frame. 

“Wow Davey. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say a full sentence before.”

“Sorry, are we talking about the same David Jacobs?” Race asked. “The guy doesn’t shut the fuck up when you get him going.”

“Hey!”

“That answer your question Buttons?” Jack asked. “This ain’t just school newspapers and banned topics anymore. This is for every kid, whether their school is public, private, religious, community, or whatever, to make sure that no one denies them the right to know about the world they’re living in. Which, as you’re all probably aware, is a pretty fucked up one right now.”

“You should write that down Kelly, you’ll need it someday,” a familiar yet unexpected voice said. 

Jack turned around to look behind Davey. “What are you doing here, Katherine?”

Katherine came and stood next to the swing frame, leaning against it. “I was just… uh, passing through,” she said. “It’s hard to miss you lot when you’re all gathered together. Which is a good thing, because I was actually planning on talking to you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. I was thinking about this strike of ours. We need to take it beyond the school.”

“We were thinking the same thing,” Davey said. 

“Really? You were going to go to the actual press too?”

“What?”

“What?”

“What?”

“Okay, clearly none of you are on the same page,” Sniper said. “What’s your plan Katherine?”

“I know some people who could get the story somewhere. Online mostly, but potentially to print,” Katherine explained. “Should I contact them?”

Jack looked to Davey, then Race. They all nodded in agreement. “It couldn’t hurt. Let us know how you go.”

“Will do,” she said, smiling. “I’ll see you all on Monday with, hopefully, some good news.”

She left the way she came, a slight skip in her step that made her curls bounce as she walked along. Jack decided that it was a good point to end their little meeting, and the newsies started to wonder off in their separate directions to head back home. Davey waited until Jack made sure someone was catching the bus with Crutchie, and then they began to make their way home. 

Davey pretended to ignore the way Jack kept looking at him and grinning as they walked down the street. Until he did it for the fourth or fifth time, and he couldn’t ignore it anymore. 

“What?”

Jack kept grinning. “What?”

“Stop looking at me like that,” Davey said, lightly shoving Jack away and quickly walking ahead. 

For a second he thought Jack had stopped walking, or wasn’t going to catch up with him, until a pair of arms circled around his waist and lifted him up off the ground. Before he could process what was happening, he was being spun around. 

“Jack!” Davey exclaimed, trying not to laugh but failing. “Put me down!”

“You heard it right here first folks, David Jacobs spoke in front of a crowd!” Jack placed Davey on his feet. 

“And nearly had a heart attack in the process.”

“Forgive me if I’m a little proud,” Jack paused. “Hey, did you think it was a little odd that Katherine found us today?”

Davey shrugged. “I dunno. She said it was a coincidence.”

“But what was she doing around here? She lives in this real nice place in Midtown.”

“And? What, do you think she was following us or something?”

“No. No. I dunno, I just got an odd feeling ‘is all.”

They reached Davey’s building, sun shining from right above as midday approached. There were people entering and exiting the bookshop below the apartments. People had their windows open, and there were plenty of people sitting outside at the cafe across the street, enjoying the good weather. 

So really, Davey was surprised with himself when he automatically moved to kiss Jack goodbye. He leant down; he’d gone up one step and Jack was still on the sidewalk, and pressed their lips together gently. Jack’s hand went to his and he laced their fingers together. 

“You’re coming over tomorrow to work on the English homework, yeah?”

“Sure, see you then.”

Davey was about to open the door, before he remembered something and turned around. “Hey Jack!”

“Yeah?” Jack spun around at the sound of his name. 

“I spoke in front of everyone, now you have to draw for the newspaper!”

“What newspaper?” Jack called back, grinning. “We ain’t got one at the moment, remember?”

 

\----

 

Davey’s room was a mess. His desk and bed were covered in stationery, paper and notebooks, and spaces that didn’t have that were filled by empty glasses and plates from the various snack breaks they’d taken whilst studying. Davey sat in the desk chair, and Jack was sprawled on the floor, having abandoned the chair from the kitchen they’d brought in. 

Jack enjoyed English in the sense that he enjoyed reading, and enjoyed discussing the books, providing they were decent books. However, like most students, he loathed writing essays. He explained to Davey he just couldn’t form his thoughts into sentences suitable for the written format, and therefore always struggled with them. 

They were working their way through the third paragraph of their respective essays when Davey’s phone vibrated a few times. The screen revealed a series of texts from Sarah had come through. 

_ get online plz _

_ where are u _

_ since when are you late what’s happening _

_ WHERE. ARE. U.  _

“Crap!”

“Huh?” Jack lifted his head from the floor and looked around. 

“I, uh, I usually skype my sister every Sunday at this time,” Davey logged onto his laptop and into the program. “I didn’t realise how long we’d been here.”

“Do I need to go?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Davey said as a face appeared on the screen. “I am so sorry Sarah.”

_ “Where the heck have you been?” _

“In my room. We were studying.”

“ _ We?” _

Jack chose this moment to sit up and poke his head above the desk, smiling. “Hi”

“ _ David… who’s this? _ ”

“I’m Jack. Jack Kelly. I go to school with Davey. Nice to meet you,” Jack gave a little wave. 

Sarah laughed. “ _ Oh, I’ve heard about you. Nice to put a face to the name.” _

“Oh really, what have you heard about me?”

“Jack, don’t you have an essay to finish?” Davey asked. 

Jack laughed. “Alright, alright.”

The Jacobs’ siblings continued with their weekly catch up, Jack chiming in occasionally when he thought the topic held some interest. Davey told her about the strike, and Sarah absolutely loved the idea. They spent the rest of the time talking about Sarah’s school, and how awful some of the boys in her classes were. They talked well into the evening, until Les interrupted them to say dinner was ready. 

“Sarah!”

“ _ Hey kiddo! How are you? I miss you so much.” _

“I miss you too, when are you coming home next?” Les put on a sad pout that had Jack and Davey snickering in the background. 

“ _ I’ll try and get back in the next few weeks, I promise. Love you!” _

“Love you too.”

“Bye Sarah,” Davey said. 

“Bye my lil’ brothers. Nice too meet you Jack.”

She said one final sentence in a foreign language before she hung up, leaving Davey glaring at the screen that had gone black, and Les and Jack looking confused. Davey ignored them both in favour of packing up the school work on his desk, hoping his ears weren’t going red. 

“What did she mean by that?” Les asked. 

“Nothing, she’s being dumb. Go wash your hands before dinner.” 

There was an awkward silence as Les left the room. Davey still refused to look at Jack, even when he perched himself on the desk. 

“So was that… German?” Jack guessed, clearly having absolutely no idea what Sarah had said.  

Davey snorted. “It was Yiddish.”

“Oh. Are you fluent?”

“Nah,” Davey shook his head. “It’s mainly stuff I picked up from Saturday school when I was little. And my mom can speak it pretty well, so phrases I’ve learnt from her too. I can’t read it at all.”

“Jack, Davey,  _ dinner,”  _ Les interrupted from the other side of the door impatiently. 

Les, Esther and Mayer were all waiting for them by the time they seated themselves at the dining table, and Davey mumbled a hasty apology. As Esther handed out plates Les regaled them with stories of the other kids who lived in the building; whom he spent most of his Sundays playing with providing his homework was done. 

“How about you two?” Mayer asked Davey and Jack. “How’s that newspaper going? Probably takes up a lot of your time doesn’t it?”

Jack looked at Davey in surprise.. “Have you not told them?”

“Told us what, dear?” Esther asked. 

Nervously, Davey explained to his parents why no newspaper was being printed at the moment, and what the newsies were planning to do. He was sure his parents wouldn’t disapprove of the idea, but he didn’t want them to think his new friends were a bad influence of any kind, especially Jack. 

“Well I’m glad you boys are standing up for what’s right,” Mayer said. 

“This isn’t going to affect your school work is it David?”  Esther asked. “After what happened last year, I don’t want you getting into anymore trouble. 

“We’re not causing trouble, I promise,” Jack said. “Just trying to do something good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sarah tells Davey "you two look at each other the same way. it's cute".
> 
> (Side note: I got the idea of the Jacobs' being able to speak Yiddish from someone's headcanons on tumblr. I did a little of my own research too, but if it is in fact terribly inaccurate or anything please let me know)


	6. Chapter Six

“Jack Kelly and David Jacobs? Mr Pulitzer has requested to see you.”

Jack and Davey exchanged confused glances across the table at the library they were sitting at. Most of the newsies spent first period there; considering there was no class to go to anymore. The man from the admin office gestured that they should follow him, and they did so without a word. They were escorted down the hallways in into the administration wing. 

“Think we’re finally getting that meeting?” Jack asked eventually. 

“I hope so.”

They were ushered straight into his office without having to wait. Upon entering, they were both surprised to see Katherine sitting in one of the three chairs facing the desk, Pulitzer on the other side. Neither seemed happy about the situation. 

“Boys,” their principal greeted curtly. “Take a seat.”

The first thing Davey noticed about Katherine is that she refused to look either of them in the eye, and that left a horrible feeling deep in his chest. Her head was down, hair falling to cover her face. She hadn’t even looked up when they entered the room. This wasn’t going to be the meeting they hoped for. Pulitzer took some time organising papers on his desk, then finally looked up at them. 

“I’ve called this meeting because this little game you’re playing with the newspaper club has got to stop. It is a club, nothing more. I had calls from a newspaper this morning, an  _ actual  _ newspaper, asking if I had a statement to make. I asked them where they even got their information from, and it turns out you’ve gone and got my daughter here involved too.”

Both of them turned to look at Katherine, completely stumped by the new information. She still wouldn’t look at either of them, eyes focused on her hands in her lap. Pulitzer looked pleased by the shock on their faces, even having the audacity to chuckle to himself. He smiled before continuing. 

“Yes, that’s right,” he said. “Katherine lives with her mother, you see, and has her surname. She doesn’t like people knowing I’m her father, unfortunately.”

“Oh I wonder why,” Katherine rolled her eyes, finally looking up. She glared at her father. 

“That’s enough young lady,” Pulitzer snapped. “Now, before this all gets out of hand, I want this striking business to stop otherwise your actions are going to have consequences. David, you’re very lucky we accepted you into this school after your record at your previous one. What a shame to add more damaging reports to your transcript. How awful it will look on college applications.”

Davey felt his stomach plummet, his mouth become dry. “I… I-”

“Listen, we’ve got a legitimate concern!” Jack burst out. “What you’re doing could be classified as downright discriminatory. And now we’ve let the actual press know! They’ll still come investigating.”

“Jack,” Katherine warned.

“No, they won’t, because I’ve assured them there’s nothing to worry about and that they may have gotten the wrong school, because nothing is happening here,” Pulitzer said. Beside him, Davey saw Jack’s knuckles turn white as he gripped the chair. 

“And you think that’s enough to stop them?” he asked. 

“Of course.”

“Oh really because I-”

“Enough! Katherine, David, you’re excused. I want to have a few more words with Jack here.”

Jack’s face suddenly went completely neutral; which Davey took as a sign he had no clue what was happening next. Reluctantly, Katherine and Davey got up and exited. They only went far enough to make the office staff think they’d gone back to class, then they sat and waited. Davey had no idea what to say to Katherine; she was their principal’s daughter! He didn’t know what her living situation was like; who knew how much information she’d told her dad, on purpose or not, about their plans. Still, he was pretty sure she was on their side, so he waited with her silently for Jack, unwilling to pick an unnecessary fight. 

About ten minutes later Jack burst out of the office, fury written all over his face. They both stood up to meet him and he immediately cornered Katherine. For a moment Davey was worried for Katherine, but she stood her ground and glared right back at Jack. It seemed to be a game of who would speak first, and finally Jack relented. 

“What the hell was that? Your  _ father? _ ” 

“Jack back off!” Davey said, tugging Jack’s arm so he stepped back. 

Jack only rounded on him. “So you’re on her side?”

“I’m on  _ your _ side, not my father’s!” Katherine said. “I never said anything to him, and I don’t need him to, he’s got friends in high places who can tell him a lot more about what’s happening in this city than I can. Hell, my own mother probably told him stuff despite the fact they’re divorced.”

“Right”

“I’m serious! I never lied to anyone!”

“Oh really?”

“I just… didn’t tell you everything.”

“Jack, what happened in there?” Davey asked, hand still on Jack’s arm. 

“It doesn’t matter, this is done,” Jack ripped his arm violently out of Davey’s grip. The sudden movement sent Davey stumbling sideways, his glasses clattering to the floor. Jack seemed to pause with regret, but he continued without comment. “I need some air, I’ll see you around.”

They could only watched as Jack quite literally ran off; out of the school’s front doors and then who knew where. Davey could feel his chest tightening, his breathing becoming shaky. He clenched and unclenched his fists repetitively to stop them shaking too. This was not how it was supposed to go. 

“Davey, you’re panicking,” Katherine said gently. She bent down and picked up his glasses, placing them in his hand. 

“Really? Hadn’t noticed”

“C’mon, you need to breathe. Slowly.”

Davey followed her instructions until his breathing stopped shaking and his hands didn’t need to be clenched anymore. His chest still felt like it was wound in on itself, and he was sure that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. 

“Thanks,” he said, putting his glasses back on. “We should get back to class. Or the library in my case.”

Katherine nodded. “Walk me to my Calculus classroom?”

“Sure”

She hooked their arms together, giving him a reassuring smile. They walked along in much the same silence they did whilst waiting for Jack, except this time it wasn’t Katherine Davey was worrying about. He’d never seen Jack look so angry, or shout at someone before. 

“Katherine,” Davey said just before she went into her classroom. “I’m not mad, but why did you never say anything?”

“Because I was scared of a reaction like Jack’s,” she said simply. 

Davey took an extended route to the library, taking time to process what had just happened in the half an hour. He didn’t know what the next step was. He didn’t know what to tell any of the newsies when they inevitably asked what happened. 

When he returned to the library and to the spot he and Jack were sitting at, Jack’s stuff was still there but there was no sign he’d returned. Davey sat down and continued his work, looking to the door occasionally in the hope that Jack would come back. Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen, and then the bell to signal the end of first period rang. No sign of Jack. Not knowing what to do, he packed up Jack’s things along with his own and put them on top of Jack’s locker on his way to his next class. 

He sent Jack a text to ask where he was, and wasn’t surprised when it was left read with no response. Whatever Pulitzer had said once he and Katherine had left must have been bad. 

 

\----

 

Jack didn’t show up to English or Algebra, and Davey could only shrug when teachers questioned him on where his friend was. He didn’t show up to lunch either and none of the newsies knew where he was either; some said they even tried to call him in between classes and got no response. 

Davey tried to push it to the furthest corner of his mind and go on with his day. He picked Les up from school, they walked home, he went to his room, he did his homework. Still no responses. Watched TV with Les, helped his mom with dinner, ate dinner. Nothing. After much deliberation he decided to try calling Crutchie, because surely he would know something. 

“ _ Hey Davey _ .”

“Hi Crutchie. Listen, have you seen Jack?”

“. _..Yeah _ ?” Crutchie said this as though it was obvious. 

“Is he okay? He hasn’t responded to any of my calls or texts.”

“ _ Depends on your definition of okay. I mean, he’s alive, eating, talking… I think I even saw him do some homework at one point. But, uh, Dave, here’s the thing, I don’t really know what happened in that meeting of yours but you should probably leave Jack alone tonight _ .”

“Leave him alone?” Davey repeated, cursing how weak his voice sounded. 

“ _ Yeah. He needs space. Doesn’t want to see or talk to anyone. _ ”

“Right”

“ _ Look I’ve got to go, I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?. _ ”

“Yeah.” 

Davey hung up, and resisted the urge to throw his phone out of pure frustration. He didn’t want to admit how much it hurt that Jack didn’t want to talk to him. Even if it was to just say he was okay. He sat against the wall of his bed, knees curled up to his chest. What was even going to happen at school tomorrow? Would they all get put in random classes because the newspaper was no more? Would they be given detentions? Would Jack actually speak to any of them? Davey didn’t know

“Davey?” Les’ voice came from the other side of the door.

“Yeah?”

Les opened the door, walked in and climbed onto Davey’s bed. “Are you okay? You said you’d help me with my math homework.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure, what is it?”

“You’re not okay,” Les frowned. “What happened?”

“It’s nothing,” Davey was suddenly aware of the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “Just school stuff.”

“Did you and Jack have a fight?”

“I… what makes you say that?” Les shrugged. “Not really. Something happened, and now he won’t talk to me.”

“That’s rude,” Les decided. 

“Ha. Maybe”

Les crawled over to Davey’s side and lent against him, patting him on the knee gently. After a moment he went and collected his homework, and they sat on the bed together and went through it. Les always insisted he was never going to be as good as Sarah or Davey at school, but Davey was pretty sure his little brother was smarter than he thought, even if he wasn’t so good at math. 

“Alright. I think it’s time for you to go to bed,” Davey said when they finished. 

“But I haven’t watched any TV tonight!”

“Yes you did! Before dinner.”

“Oh” Les was silent for a moment, before asking Davey a questioned that surprised him. “Are you and Jack boyfriends?”

“What?”

“You heard what I said.”

“No, we’re not.”

“But I saw him kiss you when he left after dinner.”

Davey was honestly surprised Les hadn’t said anything until then. “Well yeah, okay, that’s happened more than once, but he’s not my boyfriend.”

“Why not?”

“Because he hasn’t asked me, and I haven’t asked him. It’s the kind of thing you need to talk about.”

“Do you like him?”

There was a lengthy pause. “Yeah”

“Then you need to tell him to stop being dumb and talk to you. Then you ask each other to be boyfriends. Problem solved,” Les said matter-of-factly. 

Davey laughed and ushered his brother out of the room so they could both get ready for bed. He showered, changed, brushed his teeth, unpacked the dishwasher, and returned to his room. When he did, he noticed the faint glow of his phone lighting up from a notification. It was a text. From Jack. 

 

Jack

_ what happened in the meeting _

_ are you okay _

_ jack? _

_ i really just want to know that you’re okay right now _

_ please _

 

_ i’m okay. sorry. _

 

Davey put his phone on his bedside table and didn’t respond. That was all he needed to know, and if he tried to say something more he was probably going to regret his words. Instead he sent a text to Sarah. 

 

Sarah

 

_ kinda had a shitty day _

_ what happened. do i need to come back to ny and beat up jack. _

_ no no no. something happened. not really sure what. he wont talk to me.  _

_ that is shitty. tho sometimes we cant help even if we want to. imma tag u in some dumbass stuff on fb to make u feel better.  _

_ ur the best.  _


	7. Chapter Seven

Jack wasn’t waiting for him the next morning, and Davey didn’t bother waiting to see if he would show up. He wasn’t sure if he had a right to be, but he was finding himself angry with Jack. He wanted more than one three word text to know his friend was okay. He wanted an explanation. Why did he have to be so aggressive after the meeting? Why did he feel the need to glare at Davey like it was  _ his  _ fault the meeting had gone south? Suddenly, the prospect of having to see Jack at school was daunting, and something he didn’t think he wanted to happen. 

When he got to school Race came and found him at his locker. When Davey closed his locker door, he could see that worry was written all over Race’s face. 

“Hey, Jack wants everyone to meet in the classroom first period. You know anything about this?”

Davey shook his head. “No. Pulitzer kicked Katherine and I out of the meeting yesterday.”

“Hey, it true that he’s her father?”

“Yeah”

“Wow,” Race said. “Don’t blame her, really. I wouldn’t want people knowing I was related to that asshole.”

“ _ Race _ ”

After homeroom the newsies made their way to their abandoned classroom. Jack was already there, perched on the teacher’s desk (that was never actually used by a teacher) as though their strike never happened and it was just any other first period. When everyone was seated, he stood up and began to talk. 

“Hey, everyone,” he was obviously nervous, which was a very un-Jack-like thing. “So, as you probably know, Davey and I had a meeting with Pulitzer yesterday. It got me thinking. Say Pulitzer listened to us this time, what’s to stop him making another ban next time we write about something else he doesn’t like? What are we going to do? Strike again? Get in trouble again?”

Davey shared confused looks with the people sitting around him. They had no idea what Jack was trying to say. Jack continued, saying Pulitzer had a solution for them. Davey wasn’t sure any solution coming straight from that man could be a good one. 

“Now, I’ve spoken to Mr Pulitzer, and if we agree to bring back the paper under his guidelines, he promises he’ll forget all about this. None of us get in trouble. I… I say we take the deal.”

Like the day this all began, a huge uproar followed Jack’s words. Immediately people started yelling at Jack and each other, arguing voices making the room’s volume grow louder and louder. It was to a point that Davey thought a teacher in a neighbouring classroom would come and tell them off. 

“What the actual fuck Jack?” Sniper said. 

“This was your goddamn idea in the first place,” Albert added. 

“Well I’m taking it. Whether you do is up to you,” Jack said firmly. 

Disgusted with the boy who was supposed to be their leader, the newsies began to leave the classroom in small groups. A few nasty glares were sent Jack’s way too. 

Davey could only sit and watch Jack; he looked as lost as Davey felt. But Davey also felt angry. After everything they’d been through and Jack was the one suddenly siding with the enemy. One by one, everyone filtered out of their classroom, until only Jack and Davey were left. 

“Are you staying?” Jack asked, voice neutral. 

“No.”

“But-”

Davey stood up. “You know, I don’t get you, Jack Kelly. I thought I did, but I really don’t,” he collected his books and headed towards the door. “Tell me how quitting does anyone any good.”

“I…”

“Exactly. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to administration. I have a spare class I need to fill.”

“Davey-”

“Good luck finding a new team Jack.”

“Davey, please!”

Davey shut the door behind him. He couldn’t bare it, it was all too much for one day. 

He didn’t go to administration like he said he would. He retreated to the library, ignored the table he and Jack always sat at, and found a corner where no one would bother him. There, in the quiet of pages flipping, pens writing and keyboards tapping, it was comforting. 

His peace and quiet didn’t last for long, as soon enough Race, Specs and Albert found his spot, and sat down with him. They looked varying degrees of frustrated, and Albert’s hair was a mess from running his hands through it so much. 

“What. The. Fuck. What. That,” Race growled, though not to anyone in particular.

“Maybe Pulitzer’s got his hands tied?” Specs suggested cautiously. 

Albert scoffed. “The Jack Kelly  _ I _ know would try anything and everything to get those hands untied.”

“I just don’t get it,” Davey said. “He was the one who suggested we stop printing.”

“Technically that was you.”

“Technically I wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t for Jack. And he agreed straight away.”

“What do you think we should do now Dave?” Specs asked. 

“I don’t know. Is there anything we can do?” Davey replied. “I think… I think this might be over.”

A lengthy silence fell over the four of them as Davey’s words sunk it. None of them said it, but they were all thinking it. They’d lost. 

“Well I’m not telling Spot Conlon about this,” Albert said. “Boy’s going to be pissed.”

“Oh we can leave Race in charge of that,” Specs elbowed Race in the side.

“Hey! And why’s that?”

“Ain’t you two chummy?”

“Trust me, whatever you’re thinking, it’s not that.”

 

\-----

 

Davey went about the rest of his day avoiding Jack, and not speaking to him when he had to be in the same class as him. Whether it was a blessing or not, Jack didn’t try to talk either. At the end of the day, he walked up the street to Les’ school, and Jack didn’t try to follow him. 

Davey was mindlessly doing US History homework at his desk when his phone started ringing. He didn’t know why Crutchie would be calling, but he answered it all the same. 

“Hi?”

“ _ Hey, Davey, it’s Crutchie. You free to come over _ ?”

“Uh…”

“ _ It’s really important. _ ”

“Okay. I’ve only got an hour though, my parents are about to leave for Boston to visit my sister.”

“ _ That should be plenty of time. I really need you to talk some sense into Jack. He’s being an asshole and Medda’s starting to get annoyed with both of us _ .”

“I guess I can try, I think he’s pretty much made up his mind though.”

“ _ Something’s going on that he won’t tell us about. Maybe you can get it out of him _ .”

Davey grabbed his jacket, told his parents he’d be back in time so they wouldn’t be late setting off, and headed to the apartment of Medda Larkin and her two foster sons. As much as he thought this wasn’t a good idea, Crutchie didn’t deserve Davey ignoring his request just because his brother was acting up. Crutchie let him in, and pointed towards Jack’s studio. 

“He’s in there.”

“Oh thank goodness,” Medda said from their sofa, peering over the book she was reading. “Someone who can talk sense into that boy. I have not seen attitude like that from him since the first month he moved in with me.”

Davey smiled graciously. “I’ll try my best.”

He knocked, and when no answer came, he opened the door and went in. Jack had his back to him, facing one of his easels with his headphones in. That wasn’t what Davey noticed first though. What drew his eyes was Jack’s painting. Done in various shades of grey, was a figure cowering in a corner, made to look impossibly small. No other word could be used to describe it apart from heartbreaking. 

As though he sensed a presence behind him, Jack swiftly turned around, pulling out his earbuds when he saw who it was. He pointed with his paint brush accusingly. 

“Who the fuck let you in?”

“Crutchie. He called and said I should come over.”

“Thought you didn’t want to see me.”

“Thought you weren’t going to talk to me either way.”

Jack paused. “Then why are you here?”

“Because,” Davey sighed. “This has to stop Jack. What happened in that meeting?”

“Mind your business Dave.”

“After everything that happened and you just-”

“What’s done is done and you need to-”

“ _ Jack” _

His plea was desperate, his voice cracking on the final sound. Jack looked at him and didn’t say anything for an agonisingly long amount of time. Then his posture changed completely and he took a deep breath. 

“I should probably start this by telling you about where I lived before Medda.”

And so Davey heard the story of James Snyder’s home for boys in trouble. What was supposed to be a place to assist boys who weren’t considered to be ‘coping’ in the foster system to adjust. For boys who caused trouble at school and on the streets, to become better people. What it was though, was a place of neglect and cruel discipline. No boy who’d been through that place understood why it was still running. After two years there, Jack managed to convince the social workers and psychologists that he had ‘changed’ and he was placed with Medda. 

“Pulitzer, and I don’t know how he knows about that place, threatened to report me to my social worker and have me sent back there. Crutchie as well. I can’t let it happen. I can’t let more trouble be put on your transcript and let it affect your fucking college applications. I can’t let people get detention or get suspended. I can’t let this all be my fault!”

Jack threw his paint brush to the ground, defeated. He pressed the heel of his palms to his eyes, fighting back tears. 

“Is that… is that what it was like?” Davey gestured to the painting. 

Jack nodded. “I have whole sketchbooks dedicated to what it was like,” he said bitterly. 

“Why would no one believe you?”

“No one’s going to believe kids who are already in trouble for lying and stealing and generally being seen as no good citizens.”

Davey reached out and took Jack’s hands, relieved when he didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m sorry Pulitzer tried to blackmail you. I’m sorry this all didn’t work out.”

He moved to pull Jack into a hug, and was surprised when Jack pulled away. They looked at each other for a few moments, no idea what the other was thinking. 

“Sorry,” Jack said eventually. “It’s just… I’m not making this up right? There’s still definitely something here?” He gestured awkwardly between them. “We’re not-”

“If you’re going to ask if we broke up I’m going to have to remind you we were never officially together in the first place,” Davey said as seriously as he could, trying not to laugh at Jack’s awkwardness. 

“Yeah, it’s just… the way you looked at me this morning. I thought for sure you’d never speak to me again.”

“I don’t think I could forever…” Davey suddenly felt shy. “I really do like you Jack.”

After all the anger, betrayal and confusion of the day, Jack still managed a dazzlingly grin when Davey said those words. He reached forward and cupped Davey’s face in his hands. They kissed; an amalgamation of emotions pouring from one person to the other. 

“Davey,” Jack sighed when they parted. “How do I fix this?”

Davey chewed on the corner of his lip, reluctant to give the answer he had. “I’m… not sure.”

They stood there in silence, both brains exhausted of ideas to get them out of the situation. Jack started to pack away his paints for the evening. Davey checked his phone to see how much time he had before he had to leave. 

“Jack!” Crutchie called from the other side of the door. “You have another visitor!”

Before either of them could question who it could be, Katherine burst through the door rather dramatically. She regarded Davey’s presence for a moment, perhaps surprised he was there, and then grinned. 

“Just the people I need to see!”

“Do any of my friends understand the concept of knocking?” Jack wondered. 

“No time,” Katherine said. “Now, today didn’t go to plan, obviously, but I am not giving up just yet. It’s time to go back to your original plan; telling everyone and anyone about what’s going on here.”

“How?” Davey asked.

“By doing what you do best, printing a paper.”

Katherine explained how they should write their own paper; not affiliated with the school or anything. It would probably end up more newsletter or pamphlet like, but it would still get their point across. If enough people knew, then Pulitzer wouldn’t stand a chance. 

“This is for every kid, no matter their school, to make sure that no one denies them the right to know about the world they’re living in. That’s what you said Jack. So let’s do it for every kid in our school and beyond.”

“So I’m agreeing so far, except where the hell are we going to print this? We need enough resources to print hundreds,” Jack said. 

Katherine’s smile was one of mischievous. “Luckily I happen to know a classroom with everything we need. And I happen to know how we can get in.”

“We’ll meet at the park at eleven. Everyone who can sneak out of home somehow. Shouldn’t take us more than a few hours.”

“Hang on, you’re talking about breaking into our school,” Davey said. 

“I know,” Jack grinned. “Cool huh?”

In that moment Davey decided any future therapy he needed would be billed to the one and only Jack Kelly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *the first notes of Once and For All playing in the distance* we're getting close to the end y'all


	8. Chapter Eight

“Davey, why the fuck did you bring your kid brother?” Race asked, gesturing to Les sleeping in Davey’s arms. 

Davey was kind of regretting the decision already. His arms hurt from carrying and holding his brother for so long, and there was definitely no comfy place in the classroom for him to put Les down, increasing the chances of him waking up through all of this. But he had no choice. 

“My parents aren’t home,” Davey said. “He’s ten, I couldn’t leave him there.”

“Could someone please tell me why I’m here?” Spot Conlon grumbled, tugging his jacket tighter around himself. “I ain’t part of your weird student revolt.”

“Uh, yes you are,” Race told him. “You agreed to help us start this, now you’re helping us end it. Besides, you need to know what to say on your radio show this week.”

“I hate you all.”

They were gathered at the park, away from street lights that could illuminate their presence. The only person they were waiting on was Katherine, who possessed the ability to get them into the school. How she was going to do that, Davey had no idea. 

“I’m here, I’m here!” Katherine had abandoned her usual perfectly put together outfits for something more casual, like the majority of them who were dressed like they’d rather be in bed. 

Katherine presented a series of keys attached to a sing ring to Jack, who examined them for a moment. “Someone’s being picking Daddy’s pockets.”

“I don’t think the locks will be our only problem,” Crutchie said. 

Katherine tapped her temple. “I also know the alarm code and where the security cameras are. I should never be left alone in an office with valuable information.”

“Shit, you’re really not messing around here are you?” Buttons asked. 

“Nope. Let’s go”

By some miracle, though Davey was pretty sure that miracle was called Katherine, they did manage to break into their own school. The process involved a lot of holding one’s breath and praying no one would see them, and by the time they were actually in their classroom Davey had changed in mind about the whole idea.

“This is such a bad idea,” he said to no one in particular. Everyone around him was too busy turning on lights and computers and printers to listen properly. “We’re going to get into so much trouble.”

“Relax Davey,” Jack patted his shoulder. “If things go south it’s all Katherine’s fault.”

“Hey!”

Jack ignored the protest. “Now put Les down and let’s get to work!”

Katherine had taken the liberty to produce a pre written article, which she handed off to Specs and Davey to be edited as they saw fit. Albert and his band of computer whizzes started work on the layout. The ‘newspaper’ was only going to be one page, back and front, with one very important story. With no time to go out and take photos, the photography team sifted through their stock of images to find any that would be appropriate or relevant to place in such a paper. 

Davey had just handed the article off to Specs so he could type in off when he noticed Katherine sitting in the corner on her laptop, fingers flying across the keyboard as she typed. He walked over and sat beside her. 

“What are you doing?” he cringed at how tactless it sounded, but he was genuinely curious. 

“Trying to get in contact with some certain people who will be able to stop the nonsense at this school once and for all. Hopefully they read this email by morning.”

“... And if they don’t?”

“Well, there’s always going directly to their houses,” Katherine mused. Davey couldn’t help but laugh. 

“This is pretty good stuff Plumber,” Jack said, reading the article. “Any chance you want to switch from yearbook to newspaper?”

Katherine placed a hand over her heart. “And leave my pride and joy, the position I’ve been working towards since freshman year? You’d have to pay me a lot Kelly.”

“Hey guys,” Albert beckoned everyone over to the computers. Once they were all gathered he continued. “We’re almost done, it’s just… what do we call it?”

“What do you mean? It’s still the Banner.”

“It’s not really though, is it?” Mush said. “We’re not doing this for the school. This is about us.”

Jack paused for a moment. “Then we call it the Newsies Banner.”

Murmurs of agreement fluttered around the room, and Albert added the heading to the page. It was time to print. The newspaper classroom had multiple printers, with the intended purpose of using each one to print different pages of the newspaper. This time they could just print twice as many newspapers twice as fast. 

“Just think, everyone,” Katherine said as she watched them print. “As my father sleeps blissfully we’re using his own school to bring him down.”

Jack turned to her, wide eyes. “Geez, remind me to never piss you off.”

It drew close to one am by the time they had finished printing. Some went to start putting them around the school in the places they could at the current hour, whilst others wrapped the rest in bundles to be distributed in the morning and outside of school. A few were being picked up by students from other schools in the morning as well. 

“Davey?”

In all honesty, Davey had hoped his brother wouldn’t wake up and he wouldn’t have to worry about keeping this from his parents. In reality, he knew that wasn’t likely and was surprised it had taken Les this long to wake up. 

“Hey,” he said gently. “You should go back to sleep.”

“But why are we at your school?”

“You’re dreaming, kid,” Jack remarked from over Davey’s shoulder. Davey rolled his eyes and shoved him away. 

“You’re not helping,” Davey hissed at him before turning back to Les. “I’ll explain in the morning, okay?”

Luckily, Les was far too sleepy to protest further, and he closed he eyes without another word. Once confident his brother had fallen asleep again, Davey left him to help the group pack up and make it seem as though they’d never been there in the first place. Everyone gathered back in the room before they snuck out of the school, and everyone’s eyes fell on Davey and Jack. 

“Right, this stack here is for you all to distribute on your way home. Put them in your neighbour’s letter boxes. Give stacks to your friends to take to their schools. We meet here at eight tomorrow morning, and we give out this stack to students before the bell rings. By then enough people will have read the Newsies Banner and after that-”

“After that,” Jack interrupted Davey. “It’s out of our hands.”

The lights turned off, the school flooded once again with complete darkness. The only sounds that could be heard were the rustling of paper and quiet footsteps. The beeping of a code being pressed into a keypad. Then silence completely fell. The newspapers waited. 

 

\-----

 

Davey’s phone read two twenty one as he and Jack walked down his street. The newsies had left the school half an hour ago, but it had taken them a while to organise everyone into groups so no one walked home alone. That’s how Jack ended up by his side, carrying Les on his back, after insisting the Jacobs boys should have someone accompany them. They both sighed in relief when they stepped inside; the temperature of the night almost becoming unbearable. 

“You should stay here tonight,” Davey said as he unlocked the door to his apartment. “You can’t walk back to your place at this hour.”

“You sure?”

“I wouldn’t be saying so if I wasn’t. You’ll freeze otherwise.”

“I… alright. Les’ room is the last door down here right?” Jack asked gesturing to the hallway with a nod of his head.

“Yeah. No, wait, give him here I can do it.”

He took Les back from Jack, and carried him down the hall into Les’ bedroom. His little brother wasn’t entirely asleep, but wasn’t quite awake either. However as soon as his head hit the pillow and Davey pulled the blankets over him he was out completely. Davey shut the door partially on his way out; just the way Les liked it, and found himself facing Jack who was still awkwardly standing in the hallway. 

“Jack, you know where my bedroom is,” Davey said, gesturing towards the door. 

“No, yeah…. I, um… do you want me to sleep on the couch?”

Davey sighed. “That couch is way too small to sleep on. I can’t believe these words are leaving my mouth, but just get in the bed Jack.”

That brought back Jack’s mischievous smile. “Trying to get me in your bed are you?”

“You know nothing’s going to happen,” Davey rolled his eyes and shoved Jack gently in the direction of his room. 

“I know  _ that _ ,” Jack said. “Still…”

“I’ve changed my mind. You can sleep in your favourite place, the fire escape. I’ll lend you a blanket or two.”

Jack launched himself at Davey’s bed and buried his face in one of the pillows. “Too late,” came his muffled voice, followed by a bout of exhausted laughter. 

“Jack, your shoes!”

By the time Davey actually got into his bed, he was struggling to keep his eyes open. They felt heavy and sore, and it was even worse knowing he had to get up in a couple of hours. He curled up on his side, facing out like he always did, and began to drift off. It wasn’t long before a hand on his shoulder startled him completely awake again, and he rolled over to glare and Jack in the dark.

“Can this wait until I’ve slept?” he murmured, too tired for anything louder.  

“I… I just wanted to make sure you knew how sorry I am for all of this,” Jack replied. “Sorry for hurting you. Like, I could have actually injured you after that meeting with Pulitzer. Or at least broken your glasses.”

“It’s fine, I’m fine.”

“Still-”

“Jack Kelly, it’s almost three am and we are sharing my bed, and you think I’m still mad at you?” Davey was glad Jack probably couldn’t see the fond smile forming on his face. “I forgive you. I do. You don’t think… what if Pulitzer still tries to put you in that awful home?”

Jack shook his head. “Medda won’t let them.  _ I  _ won’t let them.”

There was a brief pause when Davey thought he was finally going to get some sleep. However, he could tell Jack’s eyes were still on him and it wasn’t long before he spoke up again. 

“Hey, we should go on that date this weekend.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“You know I’ve never been on a real date before.”

Jack reached across and took Davey’s hand under the covers, threading their fingers together and squeezing his hand. “Me either. Wouldn’t want my first with anyone else.”

“Well at this point I’d sure hope not.”

“Shut up.”

Davey was sure Jack was going to shove him, but instead he tugged on Davey’s hand and pulled him closer. They ended up in a rather awkward hug, Jack’s nose smushed into the side of Davey’s face. Davey tried to push away, but Jack only pulled him closer, presses kisses down the side of his face. He was muttering nonsense as well, but Davey was pretty sure it sounded happy. 

“Jack,” Davey complained, trying not to laugh. “Shhhh, we need to sleep.”

“Alright, alright,” Jack pulled his arm back so Davey could move over. He shuffled over enough so he had breathing room, relieved when Jack’s arm curled around his waist. 

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

If when he woke up in the morning, Davey’s face was squashed into Jack’s shoulder, and his legs were cold because Jack stole the blanket, but his middle was cosy from having Jack’s arm slung over it and being cuddled against him all night, well he wasn’t going to complain. He would just complain about the fact he’d got less than four hours sleep and how that was definitely Jack’s fault. 

 


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The end is here...

“David Jacobs. You need to come with me to the principal’s office.”

On any other day, his homeroom would have snickered and heckled and made various calls along the lines of “David’s in trouble”. However on this day the class knew what Davey and the other newsies had done, so all he received was pats on the back and a couple of people mouthing “good luck” as he followed the administrator out of the classroom. Even his homeroom teacher did. 

As they turned down another hallway, they were just in time to see someone else from the office leading Jack out of his homeroom, and they walked to Pulitzer's office together, flanked on either side. The administrators in the office seemed to have phones ringing everywhere; they’d answer one, put it down and the phone would ring again immediately. They were all whispering names to each other. Websites, newspapers, parents, even one news station. Jack and Davey shared a small smile. 

“Boys,” Pulitzer greeted curtly as they entered and sat down. Davey’s heart was already racing. 

“Sir,” Jack replied, grinning. 

“I’m very disappointed in you both. I offer you a way out, with no consequences and the chance to start fresh, and this is the path you take? Defying my wishes? Breaking into this school in the middle of the night? Using the printing equipment that you are banned from? Jack, this is not going to look very good when I report this to social services.”

“Report all you like, nothing’s going to happen.”

“And what makes you say that?”

Jack pointed over his shoulder. “Your phones are ringing constantly. Do you know who’s on the other end? Everyone in this neighbourhood and even beyond is wondering what kind of game Joe Pulitzer is playing at his school.”

Principal Pulitzer looked offended. “Why you-”

“Why didn’t you just meet with us?” Davey asked. “We wanted to compromise, and now look what’s happened now that you haven’t.”

“Guys like him won’t talk to kids like us Dave. Why would they? Heaven forbid students have a say about what’s happening at their school,” Jack said. 

The door to the office suddenly swung wide open. 

“Sir, your daughter is here to see you. And the head of the parents board. And the school district president,” a flustered secretary interrupted. She stepped to the side so Katherine could walk through, followed by two women in business suits looking rather unimpressed. The tension in the room increased ten-fold. No one could tell whose side the women were on at this point; they both looked angry in general. Until one afforded a reassuring smile at Davey and Jack, before rounding on Pulitzer. 

“Joseph, I think we need to talk,” she said. “These students have brought some alarming things to light about what has happened at this school. Not only that, but now other schools are claiming they’d taken your lead on this kind of issue, meaning we’ve got more schools to worry about. To make matters worse, it’s gone public, which means everyone is alarmed about what’s happening at this school.”

“Please tell me you’re more worried this school than it’s image,” Davey mumbled. His eyes widened when the woman turned to him, having heard. 

“Of course dear, my apologies if it sounded any different.”

Davey, Jack and Katherine were sent out of the room and told to wait in reception. The office phones were still ringing periodically; Davey felt sorry for the people working there. 

“How did you…” Jack began, looking at Katherine in awe.

She grinned. “I did a bit of snooping and sent a few emails. My father has dinner with those women and others frequently, I’ve met them a few times. Mrs Rue, the district president, has always been concerned about him I think. Like she said, he’s been leading a few schools on this path, like the ones Darcy told you about.”

“What if we get him fired?” Davey blurted out. 

“Can’t tell if you think that’s a good or bad thing Dave.”

“Well I don’t want to be responsibly for Katherine’s dad losing his job!”

Katherine put a hand on Davey’s arm. “It’s okay. Really. My father has connections across the city. Even if he can’t get hired as a principal again, he’ll be fine. Technically you’ll be doing me a favour, now I won’t have to be at the same school as him!”

Voices filtered from outside the administration area as two new people arrived. The door opened to reveal Spot Conlon being escorted in. When he spotted the trio waiting, he glared at them and pointed a finger. 

“I knew you lot would get me into trouble. Serves me right for helping the newsies. If you’ve screwed this up a swear to god…”

“Relax Spot, Pulitzer’s already being grilled by higher ups,” Jack said. “You can probably go back to class.”

“And now you’ve just wasted my time!” Spot exclaimed. “I’m never helping you ever again Kelly, for as long as we’re both alive.”

He left again as quickly as he came, leaving the rest of them to burst into quiet giggles, not wanting to cause disruption. They fell silent as the door to the principal’s office opened, and Pulitzer and the head of the district president walked out. They went straight past them and headed outside. Katherine, Davey and Jack could only watch them go, confused as to what had just happened.

“Holy shit,” Jack whispered. “We did get him fired.”

“Not quite Mr Kelly,” the head of the parents board appeared behind them. “Joseph Pulitzer is under review at the moment. Thanks to you three and your friends, you’ve made it clear some change definitely needs to occur at this school. In the meantime, Vice Principal Bunsen will be in charge, and your school newspaper is free to run in the way you intended it to. Perhaps you’d consider distributing it a little outside the school? I’d love to read it.”

Davey smiled. “That would be great, Ma’am.”

She reached into her purse and took out three of the same business card, handing one to each of them. “Shoot me an email with your details, what colleges you’re applying for, and a copy of the Newsies Banner. I’ve got friends around New York who would be very interested in having you three in their schools after they see the work you did here.”

The trio shared a grin, thanked her once again and left the offices. Jack practically skipped down the hallway ahead of them, much to the amusement of Katherine and Davey. He got halfway and then turned around, making his way back to them before planting a kiss right on Davey’s mouth. 

“You find everyone, I’ll get Ms Hanna,” Jack said. “Meet in the classroom.”

He walked off, leaving Davey standing in the middle of the hallway completely stunned, and Katherine watching them, confused. 

“Since when…” she trailed off, unsure how to continue. 

“Um, like, a week or so?” Davey replied, a shy smile forming on his face. He didn’t know what Katherine would think of it, but he guessed it couldn’t be anything bad. 

Katherine smiled back. “Well I’m glad it’s mutual. I thought it was just Jack pining, that would have been sad.”

“Pining?”

“Davey,” Katherine put a hand on his shoulder. “That boy is so smitten with you. Now, don’t you have some news to break to your club.”

 

\------

 

Davey refused to tell any of the boys what was happening, leaving it to Jack to break the news when he got back with Ms Hanna. Luckily, Jack wasted no time as he burst through the classroom, grinning. 

“We won!” he announced. 

“What?” Sniper exclaimed. 

“Pulitzer is under review, the newspaper is back, and the banned topics are gone.”

Unlike the commotion that occurred when unjust things happened, the news of victory was met with relieved smiles, hugs all round and the odd wayward clap. It was comforting to set out their supplies again, log back onto the computers, and pull out giant mind maps written on butcher’s paper. Across the classroom, Davey caught Jack’s eye, and shook his head when Jack dramatically blew him a kiss. He then weaved his way over to him, and sat beside him. Davey could only roll his eyes. 

“What?”

“Just something Katherine said makes more sense now.”

“What’d she say?”

“It doesn’t matter. Really.”

“Now that we’ve got our newspaper back,” Race pointed at Jack. “I think you need to explain your shirt.”

“Huh?” Jack looked down at himself, confused, but Davey could see what Race saw. Judging by the growing number of people looking, the others had worked it out too. He felt his cheeks grow hot. 

“Well I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve seen Davey in that shirt at least three times since he got here, and you in it… never,” Henry said. 

“I… um,” Jack turned to Davey. “They kind of got us there.”

The room erupted in cheers and heckles. Jack threw an arm around Davey and pressed a kiss against his cheek. Davey watched as a few people started handing Race dollar bills. 

“What the-”

“Please, we knew since your first day that Jack had eyes for the new boy,” Specs said. “It was just a matter of when.”

“And I, being me, started the bets,” Race grinned. “Sniper, I believe half of this belongs to you, and the other half to me.”

“What were your bets?” Jack asked, curious. Davey kind of wished he’d drop it; as much as it was amusing it was also embarrassing. 

“I said we’d find out when the strike was over, Race said three weeks from when you met,” Sniper said, taking her share from Race. “Thanks guys.”

“All right you lot, in case you forgot you have a paper again,” Ms Hanna said. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”

It suddenly felt like Davey’s first week at Roosevelt High again. The loud conversations and arguments about who was going down to the office to get printer ink. Pens occasionally being thrown across the room and piles of paper everywhere. Except unlike Davey’s first week it felt like he belonged. He felt at home. 

Everyone was reluctant to leave when the bell rang. A few tried to bargain with Ms Hanna, insisting they needed extra time to get up and running again. Their teacher, despite how much she was smiling, wouldn’t have any of it, and hurried them along. 

“Come on you lot, I have a free period next and I want my tea,” she said, holding the door open as they all went through. 

“Oh, we know not to get between you and your tea Ms Hanna,” Albert said cheekily, dodging Ms Hanna as she lightly swatted at him. 

Davey and Jack were the last to leave, bidding Ms Hanna goodbye and heading out into the corridor. As they exited, Jack offered his hand out to Davey. He surprised himself by taking it without hesitation. 

“I’ll walk you to History.”

“You just don’t want to go to class.”

Jack scoffed. “That’s not true, I have art next.”

“Jack Kelly, you could only be taking art classes and you’d still be late half the time.”

“Wow I can’t believe you just accurately predicted what college is going to be like for me.”

They both burst out laughing, gaining a few odd looks from people passing them in the mad rush to change classes. When it was out of their system, Jack looked nervous, fiddling with their interlaced fingers. 

“So… you doing anything after school?” he asked. 

Davey shook his head. “Why?”

“How about we go on that date I keep talking about? I know this really nice ice cream place in the east village, and there’s a free art gallery. Assuming you, um, like art galleries… or-”

“Jack,” Davey interrupted, sensing his boyfriend was about to start rambling. “That sounds great. Are we going right after school?”

“Sure”

“Okay then. See you in algebra.”

They shared a brief kiss and parted ways. When Davey entered his classroom he had his lips pressed together tightly; trying his best not to let the overwhelming grin he was harbouring appear on his face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you have it. Thank you so much for all your kind words and such on this fic, it means so much. I am thinking of a sequel set during the summer after Davey and Jack graduate; just a collection of random one-shots, so if you have any ideas of what you'd like to see them get up to let me know! 
> 
> Also feel free to come and talk to me over at tumblr my URL is @ fuck-bones


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